As part of a cohort of four Aboriginal students who became the first to achieve a maritime qualification that will allow them to travel the world working on any ship, Grant Syron has capped the year off by winning a coveted award at South Metropolitan TAFE (SM TAFE).
Grant was awarded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year following his completion of a Diploma of Maritime Operations (Watchkeeper Deck).
The Como resident has gone on to become a second officer, which makes him second in line on the ship’s deck, although his ambition is to take his studies and career development as far as possible.
“My long term goal is to become a master mariner but to do this I need to gain more sea time and then go back to SM TAFE to become a Chief Officer, and from there will again need more sea time as a chief officer,” Grant said.
“From a nervous start when I was unsure of my academic capabilities, I’m now very excited about this career path and am excelling in study and work even though I’m the youngest crew member on my work vessel.”
SM TAFE’s Student Awards recognise the achievements of students from across the college, including winners in the categories Apprentice of the Year, Trainee of the Year, International Student of the Year, Vocational Student of the Year, VET Secondary Student of the Year, and the Cultural Diversity Training Award.
His role on a 90-metre vessel working out of Dampier on the North West Shelf is, Grant hopes, the start of a journey that will see him working internationally.
It’s a long way from humble beginnings growing up in a Sydney housing commission.
“I did not know what I wanted to do but then a friend worked on the waterfront and helped get me a job where I started to learn about deck and sea occupations and all the equipment they used, so from there I decided to go to TAFE to study,” Grant said.
SM TAFE Senior Client engagement Officer and panel chair Nate Stuart said Grant was one of just a handful of Indigenous employees in this industry nationally and would be an amazing ambassador for SM TAFE and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders looking for an exciting career where the world is the limit.
SM TAFE provides internationally recognised maritime vocational training in both coastal and ocean seafaring qualifications from the Fremantle campus. Flexible delivery options are offered in a range of short courses, skill sets, traineeships and qualifications from certificate II to advanced diploma.
The maritime campus includes some of the most comprehensive facilities for training in the country, including ship, bridge and engineering training simulator suites that are used in advanced maritime operations and engineering training such as navigation, cargo handling, vessel and engine room operations and maintenance. The technology features the most advanced mathematical modelling and shipping databases in the world and the hardware replicates the current equipment installed on seagoing ships.